Of course I will, Dummy
by Calyzar
Summary: A Destiny was altered. Not only is Anakin Solo still alive when the Yuuzhan Vong war is finally won, he is already engaged to Tahiri. Let's see how that happened in detail, shall we? Kind of a missing scene from chapter 68 of 'A Destiny Altered' by An Origami Fish. Enjoy!


This is my take on Anakin's proposal to Tahiri which has been mentioned at the end of chapter 68 of 'A Destiny Altered' by An Origami Fish. The scene takes place on Zonama Sekot, the morning after the parties that followed up the end of the Yuuzhan Vong war.

* * *

Morning was once again dawning over Coruscant and the living planet orbiting it, Zonama Sekot. The previous night's festivities that followed up the final victory above Coruscant had stretched on even then, but Anakin and Tahiri had retired early to get some very much needed sleep. Now, as the sun light streamed through the viewport, Anakin was in the process of waking up from a very revitalizing slumber.

The first thing he noticed was a slight weight on his shoulder, which meant he wasn't alone.

It was a fact that he was enjoying quite a bit. The petite form of his girlfriend was snuggled up against his side, with her head on his shoulder and her hand resting on his chest. A quick check on her Force-presence told him she was still asleep.

He took in the surroundings. It was a small room but a bit larger than most quarters on a space ship. The furniture was strangely familiar to him, like he had partially created them himself. The instant he noticed the organic walls between metal frames, Anakin smiled as his mind put the pieces into the place. He was in the place he knew as the _Veila's_ captain's quarters. It was the only ship in the galaxy which combined standard electronic technology with Yuuzhan Vong bio-tech, and it had been a present to Tahiri from him.

A very, very much appreciated present as he recalled.

The _Veila_ was far from an ordinary ship, with a mind of its own, and a fierce loyalty to his girlfriend. A fact the made his smile grow even more.

He tightened his arm around her waist just a little bit and was rewarded with her stirring for a second before snuggling even closer to him without waking up. This definitely was a moment he was looking forward to hopefully experience on a regular basis now that the war was finally over.

Looking down to see her face, her expression was peaceful and content, with a slight smile on her lips. The three scars on her forehead were mostly covered by her blond hair, which was a little tousled, probably from their activities leading up to their current situation. Oh yes, he was definitely looking forward to more moments like this.

As his mind replayed the events of the previous last night, there was one particular memory that stood out. It was something Jaina said, but Anakin didn't remember hearing it from her. He replayed it again, focusing on the words: "You'll always be a Solo even if it takes my brother another decade or two to make it official."

It clicked immediately – it was one of Tahiri's memories. He must have picked up on it last night, through their Force bond. It wasn't the first time, something like that happened. When both of them open up their mental barriers, they become so much in tune with each other that their minds functioned as one.

He could sense the positive emotions attached to the memory, and he could easily imagine what Tahiri felt in that moment of her conversation with Jaina. In fact, that warm feeling was now spreading through him too.

The meaning behind those words was clear – Marriage. Not something they talked a lot about. But that was mostly due to the fact that it would happen anyways once they feel the time is right.

During his time on Zonama Sekot, while Tahiri was away, he realized that the ongoing war was the only reason why they hadn't gone through with it. Probably some kind of unconscious mutual agreement to keep them and everyone around focused on winning the war, instead of marriage plans.

But that realization wasn't everything his stay on Zonama Sekot had produced on this matter. Of course, with him being Anakin Solo, his mind worked the best while he was doing something productive. And that particular something was now inside a small box in one of the little storage compartments on his utility belt.

And the war was over...

So here he was, lying in bed, with the girl he loved snuggled contently against his side. The companion he knew for half of his life already. The woman he couldn't imagine a future without. Anakin noticed Tahiri's hand on his chest and decided that right now was actually a good opportunity to go through with it. He didn't even need her to be awake for this, because he already knew her answer - really he even knew the exact phrase she would use. Also this way he might actually catch her a little bit by surprise once she woke up.

Oh, and it didn't hurt either, that the Force seemed to scream at him 'this is the right moment', too.

Grinning and not turning his gaze away from her sleeping form, he reached out with the Force to grab his utility belt from some random place on the floor - where every other piece of cloth both of them had worn the previous evening was also located.

...

The first thing Tahiri noticed upon waking up was the warmth of Anakin's body, and the first thing she thought was how good it felt. She turned her head on his shoulder up a bit to look at his face and was rewarded with him being awake and smiling down at her. Somehow she got the urge to kiss him, and with nothing stopping her from giving into that urge, she pulled herself up a little and smiled back at him until their lips touched. She felt Anakin hugging her tighter—both arms around her—and closed her eyes, as they both truly enjoyed their current situation.

Eventually breathing became a more serious need than continuing to kiss. She slowly opened her eyes again as their lips disconnected and saw Anakin's smile grow even larger, much like her own. "I love you, Tahiri." he said, his voice soft but serious while holding her gaze with sparkling blue eyes.

Warmth and happiness spread through her being. She mimicked his expression of happy seriousness and said "Love you too." Using the same words she told him when they both where on the verge of death after their stunt on the Yuuzhan Vong worldship above Myrkr, which seemed like a lifetime ago now.

She was rewarded with another one of Anakin's kisses, as his smile turned one hundred percent Han Solo and he pulled her down again.

This time, however, when Anakin squeezed her hand on his chest, she felt something odd around her ring finger and pulled back to look at it in confusion.

What she then saw on her finger made her still. A beautiful silvery ring with two sparkling gemstones embedded on top of it like eyes. One blue and the other one green—the color of their eyes.

She briefly recalled the previous evening, but didn't remember getting it then. For a moment her confusion turned into anger at Anakin for not asking her while she was awake and she turned to look at him again, not really smiling anymore. But just as she was about to ask him why, she saw images and scenes coming over their shared Force bond. Her anger turned back into confusion and then into surprise as she realized that every scene and picture that Anakin sent her, was about him thinking about how to propose to her.

And there were quite a few scenes to watch through.

Some, like she had suspected, involved a proposal in the middle of the final battle. Each of those seemed ridiculously humorous, but strangely plausible at the same time. Then there were others, opportunities not taken—their time together in his apartment on Mon Calamari, when they were lying on the roof of Shimrra's citadel after the battle waiting for the _Veila_ to pick them up. The previous night when they were surrounded by their family, _their _family, and riding high on their emotional victory. There were others still, scenes flashing through her mind faster and faster—a desert on Tatooine, the top of Yavin Four's temple, on the _Errant Venture, _in a hangar by the _Falcon_. Multiple images of him holding out a box with a ring in it, his face a mix of hopefulness and love.

Absolutely every scene ended in the same way though.

"Of course I will, dummy!", she heard herself answer every time and it wasn't hard to admit, that he was right with predicting her choice of words.

Her smile returned while everything was sinking in. "Dummy" she emitted in a small laugh taking a second look at her engagement ring.

She was in for another surprise as the green gemstone began to glow. Confused for the third time in as many minutes, it was now Anakin's turn to give her a small laugh.

"Don't worry, it's a lambent" he told her, "you should be able to make it glow, too."

Eyes wide and mouth open, she stammered "You have..." –

"I have," he confirmed. She tried a simple mental command through the Force and the lambent responded with a similar glow.

"It's amazing, Anakin" she told him, while the welcome feelings of happiness and pure contentment radiated from her like a neutron star. Her head soon found its place on his shoulder again and her eyes continued to study her new, most important possession.

After a while of blissful cuddling she said, "Now that we have this settled, we have to decide how many children we want."

"I don't know yet. I think I'm okay if we make that up as we go along," was his response that was so typically Anakin.

"I'm okay with that, too" she agreed, a huge infectious grin on her face, "Let's see how many we can handle and then get one more."

"You know, from every other person I would have taken that as a joke but if it wasn't for our Force bond, I would have questioned that statement from you." he replied, laughing lightly and softly poking the tip of her nose with his index finger at the last word.

Tahiri rolled them both, so she was on top of him and was about to silence him with a kiss, when he put the finger on her lips to stall her.

"Just for the protocol, so nobody can say I didn't ask you: Will you marry me, Tahiri?"

"Yes," was her sole response before they lost themselves in the kiss that marked the next big step in their relationship. Another step closer to beeing the family they both wanted to be.

* * *

A/N: Special thanks to An Origami Fish for creating "A Destiny Altered" and to Tahi from tf.n for her story "Many Happy Returns", which introduced me into fanfiction and specifically A/T. Another thank you again to Fish, who was so kind as to make the story readable by beta reading it =)

2013/05/28 minor edits


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